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In Search of Naunny's Grave: Age, Class, Gender and Ethnicity in an American Family
Author(s): Nick Trujillo (Author)
- Publisher: AltaMira Press
- Publication Date: 23 Mar. 2004
- Language: English
- Print length: 184 pages
- ISBN-10: 0759104999
- ISBN-13: 9780759104990
Book Description
Elsie Martinez Trujillo Alcaraz, ‘Naunny’ to her grandson and communication scholar Nick Trujillo, was a working class woman, daughter of New Mexico Hispanos, and eventually the resident of a Los Angeles nursing home. She becomes the focal point for Trujillo’s experimental ethnography of family relations, aging, and ethnic identity throughout the twentieth century. Collecting narratives of his grandmother’s life, Trujillo learns how family members use stories to define the family’s sense of itself and create collective views on intergenerational relations, social history, gender, class, and ethnicity. Through these stories, family photos, and his own recollections, supplemented with Elsie’s letters and journal entries, the author is able to explore topics often ignored in life histories of the elderly―sexuality, body image, eating disorders, marital discord, mobility patterns, racial prejudice, and interactions with the health care system. Trujillo’s presentation brings Naunny’s humor, liveliness, and generosity alive for scholars and students alike and provides a vivid portrait of being Hispanic and female in the 20th century American west.
Editorial Reviews
Review
In Search of Naunny’s Grave is a primer for critical introspection as a methodological perspective. In addition, the book is a great read and a catalyst for self-reflection. I dare you to read it without pausing to consider your own family stories. As the series editors Art Bochner and Carolyn Ellis note, one of the uses of this kind of writing is to allow another person’s experience to inspire critical reflection of your own. And that mades Elsie Martinez Trujillo Alcaraz quite a remarkable woman after all. ― Women & Language
In addition to being a fine scholarly text, the book is potentially very valuable for a variety of students and courses or course units that focus on gender, family communication, and qualitative research approaches. It serves as an excellent example of autoethnography that incorprates a variety of other research methods and writing styles. — ?JH ―
Communication Research TrendsAbout the Author
Nick Trujillo is professor of communication studies at California State University, Sacramento.
